Archeological Soundscape – Work in Progress Show

Situation-Modern city is gradually filled with complex soundscape. People begin to get used to this situation, and prefer to cover ears with headphones instead of listening the city. All these old/memorable/cultural sounds are fading away from our daily life.

Aim-Archeological Soundscape is aiming to organise complex city soundscape.

Method-Use archeological method to discover those hidden sounds in complex soundscape. I created a MaxMSP patcher connecting to conductive paint. By controlling each paint pad, it is able to draw a certain spectrum of frequency filtration to filter out unwanted sounds. So the hidden sounds can be exposed for listener. (Dicovering part is shown in the video below)

Design-Based on the discovering part, I made the prototype for people to experience. The main idea for the prototype is aiming to simulating the discovering process as well as bring people’s attention on using ears to experience our daily life. Five soundscapes are included in the prototype, only one press can trigger the special sound filtered. If press and turn the turnplate, shadow on the wall will tell you the meaning of each sound.

Material and Appearance-One of the most important thing for this prototype is integrating the whole product into daily life. So I chose timber and conductive tape as main materials. In general, the prototype looks very analog without digital objects so that it will not stand out in our daily life. But when people get close and press, the interaction will start.

Interactive Architecture Lab

The Interactive Architecture Lab is a multi-disciplinary research group and Masters Programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Interested in the Behaviour and Interaction of Things, Environments and their Inhabitants.